Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1887-09-30
The Butchers S Son.


hare! Oh, to think that should ever
have such son"
So spoke portly Suffolk butcher as
he came stamping into his house one
evening, with very red face, indeed.
"Good lack! what aileth thee, hus-
band?" cried his wife anxiously. "Hath
our son Thomas done aught to displease
thee? He was ever a good and dutiful
lad"
"Good and dutiful, forsooth growled
the butcher. "What think'st thou,
dame, this good and dutiful lad Of
thine has taken into his crazy pate?
Nothing less will serve his highncss
than to be a student at Oxford, and win
his degree there as Bachelor of Arts"
"Iackaday that were hard matter"
cried the good woman, opening her eyes
in amazement. "Whence hath the boy
got such high notions?"
High or low" grunted her husband,
"'tis all one. The thing is impossible
and there's an end ont"
Just then the figure of young lal
appeared in the doorway, whose slim,
we'll shaped form, delicate features, and
high white narrow forehead were so ut
terly unlike the butchers brawny frame
and coarse red face that no one could
eyer have guessed them to be father and
son.
"Sir," said he, quietly but firmly, 81
have blotted the word impossible out of
my dictionary"
The tone in which these bold words
were spoken and the bright fearless look
which accompanied them struck even
the angry father with involuntary adj
miratiOn.
81 like thy spirit, son Thomas" said
he, in milder voice, "but thou art over
bold, nevertheless. Who ever heard of
a butcher lad becoming Il scholar and
learned clerk of oxford? | and mine
have been butchers these two hundred
years, and | trow that what was good
enough for thy fathers is good enough
for thee"
The sly twinkle in young Toms dark
gray eyes showed that he saw the weak
ness of his fathers argument, and knew
how to answer it.
"Thou speak'st well, father" said he;
"but tell me, | pray thee, who is the
greatest man that liveth in Europe this
day"
"Why, who but his Holiness the
Pope?" said Thomas the elder, who, like
most Englishmen of that age, was
staunch Catholic.
"And knowest thou not, father" re-
torted Thomas the younger, that his
Holiness was PEASANTS son, and work
ed in the fields in his youth? What if
he had said then, What was good enough
for my fathers is good enough for me-
The greatest man in this good town of
ours is our worshipful lord of the manor.
His great-grandfather was but simple
yeoman, and yeoman he had remained
had he thought as thou would'st have
me think, father. But forasmuch as he
did good services to our lord King Hen
ry V of Englaad in the French wars,
the King knighted him with his own
hand, and 10 his descendant is become
great lord"
"Son Thomas" cried the butcher in
desperation, "wilt thou talk thine own
father out Of his senses?"
''The more reason for letting him go
where his ready speech can be known
and priced as it ought" put in the
mother who had been listening with de-
light to her sons elOquence.
But the father was too thorough an
Englishman to give in without resisting
to the utmost.
clark ye, lad" cried he, "Pll make
fair bargain with thee. IL thou caDst,
within three years, win thy degree as
an Oxford Bachelor Of Arts, well and
good; but if not, give me thy word that
thou'lt come home straightway and be
all honest butcher like thy father"
$50 be it," answered the lad, grasp
ing his fathers hand; 81 give my
word.''
"And | mine,' said the butcher;
"and to show that am man Of my
word. the day thou wearest the gown of
all Oxford Bachelor I'll give thee the
best bit of beef in my shop for thy din
ner, even il King Henry himself (lOng
life to him y had bespoken it,"
) Three years had gone by since the
father aud son made their bargain, and
the butcher, remembering how pale and
thin his son had looked the last time he
saw him, wac more anxious about the
result than he would have cared to own.
He had just unlocked a magnificent sir
loin of beef, when his wife burst head
long into the shop, and called out in a
tone Of very unusual excitement:
"what art thou doing with that beef,
husbands?
at hath been bespoken by our wor-
shipful lord OF the manor" replied the
butcher.
"were it for King Henry himself"